Which of the NHL hockey rinks has the largest seating capacity? The smallest?

Based on the information provided by the teams themselves to the NHL (for revenue purposes for the salary cap)

21273 Centre Bell (Montreal)

20500 United Center (Chicago)

20066 Joe Louis Arena (Detroit)

19758 St. Pete's Times Forum (Tampa Bay)

19537 Wachovia Center (Philadelphia)

19289 Pengrowth Saddledome (Calgary)

19250 BankAtlantic Center (Sunrise, FL)

19153 Scotiabank Place (Ottawa)

19150 ScottTrade Center (St. Louis)

18819 Air Canada Centre (Toronto)

18690 Honk Kong Shanghai Bank of China Arena (Buffalo)

18680 RBC Center (Raleigh)

18630 General Motors Place (Vancouver)

18545 Phillips Arena (Atlanta)

18532 American Airlines Center (Dallas)

18277 Verizon Center (Washington, D.C)

18200 Madison Square Garden IV (New York)

18144 Nationwide Arena (Columbus)

18118 Staples Center (Los Angeles)

18064 Scel Energy Center (St. Paul)

18007 Pepsi Center (Denver)

17625 Prudential Center (Newark)

17565 TD BankNorth Garden (Boston)

17496 Hewlett-Packard Pavilion (San Jose)

17174 Honda Center (Anaheim)

17125 jobing.com Arena (Glendale, AZ)

17113 Sommet Center (Nashville)

16940 Mellon Arena (Pittsburgh)

16839 Rexall Place (Edmonton)

16234 Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum (Uniondale, NY)

All teamns except the Rangers and Canadiens have recorded crowds above their arena's maximum (and guess what - the owners can keep that money)

Rinks are now built as Multi Use Facilitys, GM place was bulit for use with the Vancouver Grizzly's, Its more than likely the "Glass" seats are Removable ACC has 13 rows of removable seats around the rink and 15 behind the nets... As Far as making a rink Olympic compatible it cant happen unless 10s of millions of $$$ are thrown into the rinks bucause the Freeze pipes are packed in Concreat and it would take major work to extend the pipes and once extended it wouldnt be able to be converted back to NHL because all the pipes are tied in Togather to hold the chemicals that keep the surface aproximately -9 C to keep ice frozen! I'm a Heat and Frost Pipe Insulator and have worked the ACC chillers before the World Cup 2 years ago =)

The Bell Centre in Montreal has the largest seating capacity. The United Center has standing room only seating, which brings the attendance to 22,000+, while the Bell Centre doesn't offer standing room only seating. You can see the arenas capacity here http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/sports...

Nassau Coliseum for the Isles is the smallest

I know the top seating capacity in the NHL is in the Belle Centre in Montreal, and the smallest is the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island.

Highest capacity: 1. Montreal (Bell Centre) - 21,273

2. Chicago (United Center) - 20,500

Lowest Capacity: 29: Edmonton (Rexall Place)-16,839

30: New York Islanders (Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum)-16,234

This was posted in 2007. I imagine it doesn't include the luxury boxes but am not sure.

1. Montreal, 21,273

2. Chicago, 20,500

3. Detroit, 20,066

4. Tampa Bay, 19,978

5. Philadelphia, 19,523

6. Calgary, 19,289

7. Florida, 19,250

8. Ottawa, 19,153

9. New Jersey, 19,040

10. St. Louis, 19,022

11. Toronto, 18,819

12. Carolina, 18,730

13. Buffalo, 18,690

14. Vancouver, 18,630

15. Atlanta, 18,545

16. Dallas, 18,532

17. Washington, 18,277

18. New York, 18,200

19. Columbus, 18,136

20. Los Angeles, 18,118

21. Minnesota, 18,064

22. Denver, 18,007

23. Phoenix, 17,799

24. Boston, 17,565

25. San Jose, 17,496

26. Anaheim, 17,174

27. Nashville, 17,113

28. Pittsburgh, 16,940

29. Edmonton, 16,839

30. Long Island, 16,234

Rexall Place Capacity

Here's the thing though: the Bell Centre is cramped like being stuffed into a sardine can (don't need the fat guy next to me constantly rubbing his thigh against mine), while a place like Rexall Place has a little more room AND even standing room only has a great view. When I was there, I can easily hear Roloson barking out orders in the nosebleeds. Couldn't make out exactly what he was saying, but it definitely sounded like he was quarterbacking the play.